I had an interesting experience at the Hudson Hotel in NYC many years ago.
The restaurant was really busy in the evening and we had a meal there (for 8 of us), which was not great. The service was very poor, in the sense that it was excrutiatingly slow!! (At the time we were all in the Catering industry)Every course we had, we had to ask how much longer it was going to be? Our waiter kept saying "soon". At the end of the meal my boss paid (with CCard) and the waiter went off, but did a U turn about 10yds away and came back. He said that we had forgotton to put the Tip on! My boss said "no, the service was really slow and the food mediocre!!" The waiter let rip at my boss, that it wasn't his fault that the service was slow, but the fault of the Chef as he couldn't cope with the number of orders... and why should he be penalised for the slow chef!
My boss got a bit a shock at his vehemency, so ended up giving 10%.
So do you tip the waiter or the overall experience?